Gospel for October 31, 2009, Saturday
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. | 10/31/2009 12:06 AM
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30th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Rom 11:1–2a, 11–12, 25–29
And so I ask: Has God rejected his people? Of course not. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected the people he knew beforehand. Don’t you know what the Scripture says of Elijah when he was accusing Israel be-fore God?
Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not. Their stumbling allowed salvation to come to the pagan nations and this, in turn, will stir up the jealousy of Israel. If Israel’s shortcoming made the world rich, if the pagan nations grew rich with what they lost, what will happen when Israel is restored?
I want you to understand the mysterious decree of God, lest you be too confident: a part of Israel will remain hardened until the majority of pagans have entered. Then the whole of Israel will be saved, as Scripture says: From Zion will come the Liberator who will purify the descendants of Jacob from all sin. And this is the covenant I will make with them: I will take away from them their sins.
Regarding the Gospel, the Jews are opponents, but it is for your benefit. Regarding election, they are beloved because of their ancestors; because the call of God and his gifts cannot be nullified.
Gospel: Lk 14:1, 7–11
One Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and he was carefully watched.
Jesus then told a parable to the guests, for he had noticed how they tried to take the places of honor. And he said, “When you are invited to a wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you has been invited, and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you: ‘Please give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat!
Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you: ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.”
REFLECTION
Humility, as downward mobility, is clearly seen in Jesus' picture of taking the lowest seat at the table. Jesus advised the dinner guests not to take the best seats, but the worst. He didn't put the matter in spiritual terms at first, but appealed to their pragmatism. If a person took a low seat, he might be raised to a higher one, but if he took a high seat to begin with, someone who outranked him might come in and he would then be forced to take a lower seat.
The spiritual principles are the same: to exalt oneself is to invite humbling by God, while to humble oneself before God is to be lifted up by Him. Sometimes, we get the idea that humility means eating mud-pies, so to speak, or always being a wallflower. We confuse personality with spiritual virtue. Yet, the world’s greatest example of humility, Jesus Christ, was both humble and assertive. As we reflect on God’s work of humility in our lives, let’s pray that our cultural notions of humility will be replaced by Christian examples. Christ’s downward mobility is the way to the joy of God, a joy that is not of this world.
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